Han shih wai chuan :: :: University of Virginia Library

Though the five colors[2] be brilliant, at times they will fade;
the luxuriant [foliage] of a tree[3] in season will fall. Living things
have [their periods of] growth and decay; they do not attain constancy.
So the Way of the Three Kings: made to revolve, it
returns to its original state; pushed to the extreme, it reverts to its
fundamental basis. It is not merely a matter of change for its
own sake, but it is to rectify[4] evil and support the weak, eliminate

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error and overcome the false, to harmonize yin and yang and to
act in agreement with the proclivities of all things. The Ode says,[5]

Ever active was King Wên,[6]
Giving law and rules to the four quarters [of the kingdom].

[1]

Huai-nan tzŭ 20.6a is similar.

[2]

[OMITTED]: blue [OMITTED], yellow [OMITTED], red [OMITTED], white [OMITTED], and black [OMITTED].

[3]

[OMITTED]: PWYF cites only this passage. Sun I-jang (Cha-i 2.1b) thinks [OMITTED] is an
error for [OMITTED] = [OMITTED], "branches." Chao (129) quotes Mo T`ien-i [OMITTED], who
interprets the expression as similar to [OMITTED] in *Yü p`ien 12.5a s.v. [OMITTED]
[OMITTED] "The united shade of two trees," and refers to Huai-nan tzŭ 16.18b Mo's
remarks are, as Chao observes, far fetched. Preferable in Chu Ch`i-fêng's suggestion
(TT 302) that [OMITTED] is a mistake for [OMITTED] as in [OMITTED] (Yang Hsiung's
`Shu-tu fu' [OMITTED], *Ku wên yüan 4.8b). He identifies [OMITTED] with [OMITTED] "luxuriant"
and quotes Shih chi 28.29a [OMITTED] "The abundance of this year's harvest
is not yet repaid." This accords well with the Huai-nan tzŭ reading [OMITTED]
"flourishing trees and luxuriant plants."

[4]

B, C have [OMITTED] for [OMITTED].

[5]

Shih 444 No. 238/5.

[6]

[OMITTED]. This line occurs in Shih 428 No. 235/2. CHy, B, C have [OMITTED], which is the line immediately preceding the next in Shih 444 No. 238/5. Chou insists on the mixed quotation. Ch`ên Ch`iao-ts`ung (I-shuo k`ao 11.13a-b) ascribes it to No. 238/5 as a Han shih variant. There is no difference in meaning, as [OMITTED] is here King Wên, and the binom [OMITTED] occurs elsewhere as a variant of [OMITTED]. (Cf. Ch`ên, ibid.) Further, No. 238 is necessary to preserve the sequence from No. 236 (§ 8) to No. 241 (§ 10).